Asus addresses battery life concerns with upcoming ZenWatch 3

Most self-respecting smartwatch makers have moved from the clunky square / rectangle designs prevalent in early devices to more elegant round designs – you know, to mimic traditional wristwatches. Asus has become the latest tech giant to punch its ticket on the circle express, doing so with its brand new ZenWatch 3 just ahead of this year’s IFA trade show in Berlin.

The ZenWatch 3 is an Android Wear device featuring a circular 1.39-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 400 x 400 (287 PPI) that’s mated to a 9.95mm thick stainless steel casing in your choice of silver, gunmetal (black) or rose gold colors. A coating of Gorilla Glass should keep scratches and scuffs to a minimum.

Powering the wearable is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100, a SoC designed specifically for wearables that’s meant to replace the Snapdragon 400 found in many of today’s devices. It’s mated to 512MB of RAM alongside 4GB of local storage and a 341mAh battery.

Asus is making a big deal of its battery life as you’ll supposedly be able to get up to two days of use between charges. When it comes time to replenish the juice, the “HyperCharge” technology will supply a 60 percent charge in just 15 minutes. Asus is even planning to offer an optional battery pack add-on that snaps onto the back of the watch for an additional 200mAh of capacity.

That may seem like an odd accessory and it’s likely that most won’t use it but it’s still refreshing to see Asus cater to its power users that do need the extra capacity.

The ZenWatch 3 also features an IP67 rating against dust, sand and water, has Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi connectivity and is compatible with both Android and iOS devices.

Look for the ZenWatch 3 to hit the market in October priced around the $250 mark.